Augusta native Mary “Kissy” Walker, now in her 34th season coaching at Husson University, became the first female college coach in Maine to reach the 600-win plateau.
Walker has already been inducted into several Halls of Fame including Husson’s, the New England Basketball, the state of Maine Sports and the Maine Basketball halls. She earned her 600th win with a 71-61 victory over the University of Maine Presque Isle on Saturday.
“Initially, I thought when you’re around for a long time, eventually those numbers are going to happen,” said the 60-year-old Walker. “But I know there are programs out there that don’t win year after year and this wouldn’t happen to someone at those programs.”
She joins former University of Southern Maine women’s coach Gary Fifield, former Colby College men’s coach Dick Whitmore and current St. Joseph’s College of Maine women’s basketball coach Mike McDevitt in the 600 win club for Maine college coaches.
“I have been lucky at Husson because I’ve always had support from the top on down,” said Walker. “And Husson has great academic programs that sell themselves.”
After graduating from the University of Maine where she compiled an impressive career as a point guard with 220 assists and 110 steals in 80 games, Walker began her coaching and teaching career at the Holbrook Middle School in Holden.
A few years later, she joined former UMaine teammate Lauree Gott as an assistant coach at Husson University in Bangor. Gott had landed the head coaching job.
Gott left after one season to take an assistant coaching job at Northeastern University and Walker was elevated to head coach.
Walker learned a valuable lesson early on in her coaching career, saying that having a really good culture was critical.
“You have to have talented kids but they also have to be good people,” Walker said. “People who are coachable. That makes it fun. You enjoy being there.”
She added that she’s “had great players and an extremely loyal (coaching) staff that has been around a number of years and that has been super helpful.”
Randy Dodge has spent 30 years as an assistant with Walker. Steve Waceken is in his eighth season and Gott, now back at Husson as an assistant, is in season number seven.
Walker has a career record of 600-307. She has had 20-win seasons 11 times and just one losing season which came in 2012-13 (8-17). Under Walker, the Eagles have finished first or tied for first in their conference 14 times.
“I have all the respect in the world for her,” said McDevitt, the St. Joseph’s coach, who has a healthy rivalry with Walker even though they are currently in different conferences now after having been in the same conference before.
“Anything she has gotten is the by-product of the work she has put in,” McDevitt added. “She does a great job,”
Former Husson All-American Bailey Donovan said she was “so proud” of Walker and her accomplishment.
“There is no one more deserving than her,” said Donovan, who added that she thoroughly enjoyed her five years at Husson. “I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.”
“Obviously, she has been the standard for a long time,” said Maine Maritime Academy women’s basketball coach Craig Dagan. “She does an amazing job and she’s been doing it a long time. She has had the opportunity to coach a lot of good players but she’s also developed a lot of great players.”
Dagan said he is happy for Walker, and that he wouldn’t be the coach he is today if it wasn’t for her “because I’ve been super motivated over the last 20 years to beat Husson.”
Matt MacKenzie, owner of RESULTS Basketball and Eastern Maine Sports Academy in Veazie, assisted Walker at Husson for nine years. He also is her nephew.
“Kissy just has a tremendous amount of passion for the game of basketball. It’s been a part of her life ever since she was a young kid, and she puts a lot of time and effort into her craft,” MacKenzie said. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have her as a role model for me growing up, but also to learn from being her assistant on her bench for nine seasons. She just has a deep IQ for the game of basketball and her ability to connect with players is just off the charts.”
MacKenzie said Walker “absolutely” is the same person as both a coach and an aunt, agreeing that she has successfully created a family-like atmosphere in the Husson program.
“She’s always been that way. She’s just always been somebody who would give the shirt off her back to help somebody else versus looking out for herself,” Mackenzie said. “And I think that’s helped her build some very successful teams over the years, because she’s always looking out for what’s best for her team, what’s best for her players.”
One of Walker’s many strengths is her honesty.
“When I’m recruiting a player, I’m pretty up-front with them,” said Walker. “I want them to know what they are getting themselves into. If you don’t tell them everything, they may come here and discover it’s not what they want. And they aren’t going to be happy.”
Walker said coaching is getting “harder and harder” because of the advent of social media, mental health issues and the fact that more kids are being seen during their AAU basketball seasons with tournaments sprouting up everywhere.
But she also pointed out that “you can recruit from your desk at home if you want to” thanks to software and computers.
“Although it is getting harder, I still enjoy it because of the kids,” Walker said. “You work hard to develop a culture of good people. In Division III, you don’t get rich so you want to enjoy what you do and have fun. And when you’re working with good people, you don’t have to deal with a lot of outside headaches.”
Walker, who has a 23-year-old son Isaiah, said she doesn’t have a retirement date in mind.
“It’s what gets me up in the morning and keeps me going,” Walker said. “Coaching is a challenge. It gives you motivation. If you lose a game, you really want to work harder because you want to get better. If you win, you want to keep getting better so you can keep winning.”
She said there are many challenges, but she enjoys coming to work every day to tackle them.
“I’m always trying to get better,” she said.
BDN Sports Editor Matt Junker contributed to this report.